Pilibhit Voter-Roll Row: EC Acts After Opposition Alleges Targeted Changes Mainly Affecting Muslim Voters
Lucknow: Taking a serious view of alleged large-scale irregularities in the electoral rolls of the Sadar assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district, the Election Commission on Thursday removed the then Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) from voter-list duties, dismissed a computer operator, and ordered a departmental inquiry along with registration of an FIR.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa acted after a preliminary probe confirmed that searching certain Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers online displayed the details of entirely different voters. The ERO of Pilibhit Sadar and the Voter Registration Centre (VRC) operator were immediately relieved of all electoral-roll responsibilities. Subsequent reports identified the officers as Mayank Goswami (ERO) and Hemant Chaudhary (SDM, Amaria), who were attached to the district headquarters, while computer operator Anil Kumar was sacked. Legal action was directed under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code. The Commission also ordered immediate correction of the Pilibhit Sadar roll and directed all District Election Officers in the state to examine electoral rolls in their jurisdictions and submit reports within two days.
The action followed complaints by the Uttar Pradesh Congress and the Samajwadi Party. Addressing a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday, Congress leaders including UP in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam and national spokesperson Supriya Shrinate alleged that after the final draft of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral roll was published on April 10, 2026, the names and fathers’ names of 13,150 voters were changed between July and September while their EPIC numbers, serial numbers, age and gender remained identical. The party claimed that virtually all these affected voters were Muslims, alleging a clear pattern of targeting minority voters.
Shrinate cited a concrete example: an EPIC number that appeared against Mohammad Yusuf (aged around 33–35) in the April draft later showed Hasrat, son of Ramzan Ali, of the same age and gender. Similar substitutions involving Muslim names were presented. Congress further alleged that 804–884 living residents—again predominantly from the minority community—were deleted from the rolls despite still residing in the constituency, while roughly 2,600 names of people who allegedly did not live in the area were added. The total disputed entries were put at about 16,554 in a seat that has approximately 3.48 lakh voters.
The discrepancies were uncovered through intensive ground verification. A team of roughly 50–55 Congress workers spent about 96 hours cross-checking EPIC numbers across all 419 polling booths after an initial clue emerged at a cyber café on October 13. Party leaders argued that a voter who saw his or her correct details in the final draft would assume the entry was secure, only to face an identity mismatch at the polling station and possible denial of the vote. They noted that the BJP’s Sanjay Gangwar won the seat in the 2022 assembly election by a margin of about 6,930 votes, making the scale of the alleged changes electorally significant. The Samajwadi Party had also flagged anomalies in the same constituency earlier.
The Election Commission’s inquiry corroborated the core technical anomaly—EPIC numbers linking to incorrect voter details—and moved swiftly to remove the concerned officials and initiate legal proceedings. However, the EC has so far confirmed only the existence of mismatched entries; it has not publicly verified or commented on the Opposition’s claim that the deletions and name changes disproportionately targeted Muslim voters. The episode has intensified the political debate surrounding the SIR process, with the Opposition alleging centralised software manipulation aimed at disenfranchising minority voters and demanding broader scrutiny, while election authorities have ordered corrective action and a wider review of rolls across Uttar Pradesh.
